This invention is concerned with a mould arrangement for a cyclicly-operating glassware container manufacturing machine comprising two side mould portions movable relative to one another between a mould closed position in which the side mould portions co-operate to define a mould cavity with an upwardly-facing opening and a mould open position in which moulded articles can be removed from the mould.
In glassware container manufacturing machines, moulds are used both for shaping the finished article and for preliminary shaping of the glass to form parisons which are then transferred to further moulds. All these moulds need to be maintained in a particular temperature range to ensure correct operation of the machine since, if the moulds become too hot, the glass will stick to them whereas, if the moulds become too cold, the glass will not be correctly shaped. To enable the temperature of the moulds to be controlled, glassware container manufacturing machines comprise mould cooling means operable to cool the moulds during the operation of the machine. The cooling means must be controlled so that it cools the mould sufficiently but not excessively. In most glassware container manufacturing machines, the cooling means is at present controlled by an operator by a trial-and-error method which leads frequently to the manufacture of incorrect articles until the operator finds the correct setting for the cooling means. Attempts to automate the control of the cooling means are complicated by the fact that the mould is inaccessible for temperature sensing means since it is substantially surrounded by parts of the machine. In the case of a parison mould, the sides of the mould are inaccessible because of the mould side portion supporting and moving means, the bottom of the mould is inaccessible because of the presence of either blowing means or plunger moving means used to shape the parison in the mould, and the top of the mould is inaccessible because of the need to provide access for a funnel to guide a gob of molten glass into the mould and for a baffle to close the opening in the mould after removal of the funnel so that the shaping of the parison can take place. In the case of the final mould in which parisons are blown to their final shape, the sides of the mould are inaccessible due to the presence of mould side portion supporting and moving means and of cooling means for the mould, the bottom of the mould is inaccessible because of the presence of a vacuum applying bottom plate through which vacuum is applied to the interior of the mould, and the top of the mould is inaccessible because of the need to provide access for parisons entering the mould and for a blowhead to engage the mould so that air can be blown through the blowhead into a parison in the mould to form the parison to the mould.
One means for achieving access to the mould for temperature sensing means is described in European Patent Specification No. 59580 in the name of Emhart Industries, Inc. in this method, a thermocouple is embedded in the mould side portion and this thermocouple has electrical connections which make contact with fixed electrical connections when the mould side portion is in a mould open position thereof. When the electrical connections are in contact, the reading of the thermocouple is taken and the cooling means is controlled in accordance with the reading of the thermocouple. This method is satisfactory in the type of machine shown in the aforementioned European patent specification in which the cooling means is incorporated in the mould side portion supporting and moving means and in which the mould side portions are moved linearly to and from their mould open and closed positions. However, this method is not readily applicable to other types of glassware container manufacturing machine in which the cooling is provided by means of a cooling stack having nozzles surrounding the mould and the mould side portion is moved arcuately between its mould open and closed positions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mould arrangement for a cyclicly-operating glassware container manufacturing machine which can be used in a wide range of machines and in which a temperature detecting device is able to detect the temperature of the mould of the arrangement.